Apple release Irish flag emoji just in time for St. Patrick's Day

Apple will be releasing 300 new emojis soon, including one of the Irish flag.iStock

Apple will be releasing 300 new emojis soon, including one of the Irish flag.

The new message emoticons, which Apple has introduced in a new beta version of its operating system, will be more racially-diverse, with different skin shades available for each one. The emojis will appear with the next update - iOS 8.3.

The current emoji keyboard only includes national flag emojis for 10 countries, the new keyboard will include 30 new country flag options, reports PRI.org.

There will also be more family emoji options. While currently the family emoji displays only a male parent, a female parent, and one male child, the new character set will include a variety of two adults, including same sex couples, and children to better reflect the diversity in families.

However it was the racially diverse line that saw the internet light up with debate. The icons offended several in the Asian community. The new range of racially diverse icons includes six difference skin tones with a bright yellow representing the Asian community. Historically this stereotype is considered racist and highly offensive.